The Chicago Bears offense has been downright awful this season. Not one person is to blame, but changes need to be made. One area that has struggled is the offensive line. The Bears should look to free agency for help this offseason.
Have you ever heard the phrase that games are won and lost in the trenches? This has held true for decades. Money talks and well, the Chicago Bears are not talking loudly. What do I mean by this? Simple. The Chicago Bears have second-lowest offensive line payroll.
The Bears offensive line is only earning $13.5 million dollars this season. The only team that is paying its offensive line less is the Miami Dolphins. We know how well that team is doing this year. What might be worse is the team that is paying its line the third least is still paying more than $5 million dollars to the positional group than the Bears.
This number drastically changes in anticipation of the 2020 season though. That $13.5 million jumps to $37.5 million and this number projects them to have a top-15 salary designation to the offensive line position. The jump in salary is mostly due to a big increase in Charles Leno, Bobby Massie and Cody Whitehair‘s salary.
Now, we need to realize that overspending will not fix things. The team that is spending the third-lowest payroll on the offensive line position this year is the New England Patriots. Although New England is having another good season, its defense has been the main reason why. The running game has not been great for them either and they rank 24th on the year with 91.9 rushing yards per game. In comparison, the Bears are averaging only 75.8 yards per game.
That said, the teams that are spending more on its offensive lines include the Dallas Cowboys ($51.8 million), New Orleans Saints ($41.5 million) and Oakland Raiders ($40.0 million). Dallas is currently eighth in rushing this season and Oakland is 12th. New Orleans is 17th, but Alvin Kamara has missed some time this year. Needless to say, these teams are rushing much better than the Bears are this year.
In order to fix things, we must realize that drafting appropriately is typically more important. I would like to see the Bears look to add another offensive lineman in the upcoming 2020 NFL Draft. That said, Ryan Pace should make adding one offensive lineman in free agency a high priority this offseason too. Here are a few he should consider.